The True Cost of Gear and Gear Failure – SLR Lounge [My Thoughts]

Firstly I would like to thank Pye for allowing me to using screen grabs from his video to discuss his recent video on “The True Cost Of Gear & Gear Failure”.

I saw within the comments section that people had complained about Pye having sponsorships and therefore is just promoting expensive gear to get paid.

Whether SLR Lounge has sponsorships or not, the point he is making is still very valid.

I for one am a professional photographer and I began my career shooting with ‘cheap’ gear from the low-end consumer kit to 3rd party lenses and accessories.

So I do have experience with a wide variety of kit and I wanted to chime in to share my thoughts on this topic.

Firstly, I do agree with Pye to an extent. It does become a little more complex for me, as my response is not black and white seeing as there are varying kits, prices, quality… likewise varying photographers and professionals at different levels.

Pye’s advice was clear “Cheap gear is better than no gear… As a professional, invest in quality gear”

However, there are some items which are 3rd Party or ‘cheap’ that I have specifically chosen to use within my professional work, however the decision has been made whilst understanding the limitations.

I do own Nikon SB900’s and SB910’s which were at the time of purchase the flagship speedlights for Nikon. I use these for my wedding work and events.

However, alongside owning those speedlights, I purchased 2x Meike MK-910 (Click Here for my review). You can read the review to learn more about my experience with them, however I did choose to go with these flashes as they were very replaceable and I did not need to depend on them with time pressures during my real-estate work.

So in closing, I do agree with Pye that you should “invest in quality gear”, but I wanted to clarify my understanding of this advice and point out “quality gear” does not necessarily mean ‘expensive’.

I’ve recently started using Godox flashes within my professional work and have not experienced any major issues. Although in all fairness, I haven’t done side-by-side comparisons nor have I worked with ProFoto. But for the moment, the Godox flashes work well for me and much better than the Meike MK-910’s for sure!

If you’re working for high end clients and deliver stunning shots, but were fumbling around troubleshooting your kit a lot, they will remember that. So in short, my advice would simply be to find the right gear that works for you… even if its the ‘cheap’ stuff, as long as gets your the results you’re after. Just be aware of the bigger picture and be sure you’re not limiting yourself or missing out on any key moments/shots.